Big Government

Presidential candidate and former-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed several worn-out initiatives this Tuesday that would supposedly lower drug prices but, if implemented, would seriously damage research and development in the United States while harming patients well into the future. Many promising drugs would either never be discovered or be severely delayed in reaching the market.

Citizens Against Government Waste was pleased to learn that presidential candidate and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker agrees that Congress and their official staff have been given a special exemption under the Affordable Care Act, better known as ObamaCare, and that it must be abolished. He joins fellow presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in calling for its repeal.

Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) took on the subject of whether or not the Affordable Care Act, better known as ObamaCare, has encouraged employers to reduce their employees’ working hours in order to avoid the law’s penalties. According to an August 14 column by Jed Graham, the answer is yes and “there is no clearer test than the one put forth by the White House Council of Economic Advisers.” That test computed the ratio of employees that work 31-34 hours

It is not too often that I agree with former Vermont Governor and Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean but when it comes to the government “negotiating” drug prices in Medicare Part D, he is correct.

News broke on Friday, July 24 that Anthem, the largest for-profit managed health care company in the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, will purchase Cigna for $48.4 billion. The total deal, which includes purchasing Cigna’s debt, is worth $54.2 billion. Cigna is known primarily for administrating health insurance coverage for large employers. The Wall Street Journal notes Cigna is currently the fifth largest health insurer in the country and is being purchased by the second large

On July 6, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the independent, non-partisan investigative arm of Congress, released a report entitled, “Medicare Part B Drugs: Action Needed to Reduce Financial Incentives to Prescribe 340B Drugs at Participating Hospitals.” The report confirms what Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has been saying for some time; the 340B drug discount program is being abused by many hospitals for profit-making purposes and needs to be reformed.

On Thursday, June 25, the Constitution and our tripartite system of government took a major hit. The Supreme Court, in a 6 to 3 opinion, ruled against the plaintiffs in King v Burwell, a lawsuit concerning who was entitled to taxpayer-funded subsidies in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) better known as ObamaCare. You may recall this lawsuit was discussed in a prior SwineLine blog.

In what appears to be an unprecedented and illegal action, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has apparently for the first time hired a law firm to assist in the income tax audit and investigation of a taxpayer.

Within hours of the deadly crash of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia, big spenders from Washington and New York pounced on the tragedy as a reason to throw more taxpayer money Amtrak’s way.

Let’s begin with the fact that eight people lost their lives in this accident. More than 200 were injured. Politicians and liberal talking heads did not even wait for the victims’ bodies to be recovered before cynically using them as a political prop in a budget fight.